Re: AppleTalk to Ethernet bridge software for Mac?

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Mark Cummings <figjams@primus.com.au> wrote:

> Tim Haynes <trhaynes@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >Yes, it's an ISO9660 format CD.  I would have liked to have burned the CD
> >as HS but my PC burning software has no such option.  It's an EIDE
> >burner, so I can't transfer it to the Mac (and, with an SE/30, why would
> >I want to!!). Any ideas for PC burning software that will do HS formatted
> >CDs?
> 
> I'm not sure on this, but the HS.FST on the GS is what allows you to read
> ISO9660 CDs connected directly to the GS, so maybe they are one in the same?

The IIgs "HS.FST" supports both High Sierra and ISO-9660 file systems.

High Sierra is an early version of ISO-9660 (prior to the standard being
formalised by ISO).  They are similar but not identical.  The
differences are significant enough that the IIgs treats them as separate
file systems.  I think the Mac provides support for High Sierra as part
of its ISO-9660 implementation.

I'm wondering if Tim might be confusing "HS" and "HFS", as the
discussion appears to be related to how to create a Mac-formatted CD on
a PC.

> >I'm quoting the book, and thinking back, I kind of doubt that 230k is
> >what I'm getting.  I'll have to run some tests myself and try various
> >phone cords to find the one with the least "noise".
> 
> I don't think that will make much difference. I think it's a balanced
> circuit, so noise is not seen.

This isn't quite right.  A balanced circuit is not affected by
common-mode noise, i.e. noise which affects both signal lines
identically.  It is possible to get types of noise that affect one line
more than the other, which would degrade communciations speed.  Other
possible problems are poor quality or damaged cables, bad connections,
and improper termination.

> Err, a little bad news... Not too bad though... the drive size reported on
> the GS desktop is nothing like the real thing. From memory my 3G PC
> partition is only seen as 1.8G. I guess this is due to the number of bits
> used for this info. It still works though. 

A hard drive larger than 2 GB might have display problems, since this
exceeds a 32-bit signed integer (4 GB is the limit if the software
regards the size as an unsigned integer).  You cannot create an HFS
partition larger than 2 GB, since the HFS disk-based structures assume
the relevant 32-bit fields are signed.

I'd have to go hunting through documentation to find the full details,
but I'm pretty sure the IIgs can handle larger drives than this, as long
as they are partitioned.

The standard SmartPort interface supports 24-bit block numbers, which
would allow a maximum physical drive capacity of 8 GB.  Extended
SmartPort (as used by the IIgs slot 5 firmware and by the Apple
High-Speed SCSI card) supports a 32-bit block number, which would impose
an upper limit of 2 TB (2048 GB).  The SCSI protocol doesn't get in the
way until around this point.

GS/OS itself or the native SCSI drivers may impose smaller limits.

> I have the Apple IIGS System 6 User's Reference about 1" thick. One error I
> have found is on p233 regarding ADU it states the maximum number of
> partitions is 32 on each SCSI device, but I could only get 8 partitions on
> my 1.2G drive.

The manual is correct - on a 1.2 GB drive, you should be able to create
a maximum of 32 partitions.

Advanced Disk Utility is rather finicky, and often won't let you create
more than 8 partitions unless you convince it to behave itself.  I think
the solution was to delete all partitions (leaving the drive with a
single partition, or no partitions at all), partition the drive, then go
back into the partitioning option.  This time it should let you create
up to 32 partitions (fewer if the drive is smaller than 1 GB).

> I am also trying to get all Addison Wesley reference books for the GS, but I
> have a couple to go. The GS/OS Ref and System 6 Ref is one of the last two I
> would like to get.

The System 6 reference wasn't published by Addison-Wesley.  It was
produced by Byte Works.